News Releases

The Lander Magazine is a publication distributed primarily to alumni, donors and friends of the university to inform them of recent Lander activities and the accomplishments of faculty, staff, students and alumni. Started in 1972, the magazine is produced with diligent consideration by the Office of University Relations two times each year, with issues in spring and fall.

An army major, a recognized hospice care expert and the manager of Lander’s newest athletic facility are the 2011 recipients of the Lander Alumni Association’s top awards. The honorees are Major Cory Plowden, a 17-year South Carolina National Guard and U.S. Army veteran; Nancy Boyter Corley, chief executive officer of HospiceCare of the Piedmont in Greenwood; and Steve Grogan, Lander’s assistant athletic director and manager of the Jeff May Complex.

This semester nine Lander University students and two faculty members attended the South Carolina Council for Exceptional Children Conference in Myrtle Beach. Students held fundraisers to collect money to cover hotel costs and expenses related to the conference. During the conference several of these students and some Lander teaching education alumni made presentations, and received awards and scholarships.

Margaret Young Bennett, a 1997 graduate of Lander University, has won a WYFF-TV Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching. The television segment that aired in January shows Bennett working with 8-year-old Macy Storm, a special education student assigned to Bennett’s second-grade class at Lake Forest Elementary School in Greenville.
Bennett was nominated by Macy’s parents, who appreciated her efforts to reach Macy and make her feel a part of the class.

Myra Greene Shaffer, executive director of Greenwood Lander Performing Arts, was honored Tuesday evening, Nov. 30, before the sold-out Vienna Boys Choir concert at Lander University's Josephine E. Abney Cultural Center Auditorium.
Shaffer is stepping down from her GLPA position and moving into an office across campus to become the university's director of Alumni Affairs.

Myra Greene Shaffer, executive director of Greenwood-Lander Performing Arts, has accepted the position of director of Alumni Affairs at Lander University, her alma mater, beginning in December.
She will succeed longtime Alumni Affairs director Steve Grogan who, in July, was appointed assistant athletic director and manager of the Jeff May Complex, Lander's new recreation, wellness and sports center under construction on Montague Avenue.

Hugs and tears, remembrances of years past and a sense of pride in their alma mater were a few of the themes during Lander University's 2010 Alumni Reunion Weekend, which began on Friday, Sept. 24, with a 50th reunion dinner at Lander on the Square, followed by an alumni happy hour at T.W. Boons, both in Uptown Greenwood. On Saturday, Sept. 25, events focused on 60th-, 50th-, 40th- and 30th-year reunions for the classes of 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1980. Several alums from various graduating classes were also in attendance, including a 101-year-old alumna from the Class of 1930, Virginia Taylor Rushton. Rushton was accompanying her daughter Virginia Lynne Rushton Ouzts, who was on campus celebrating her own 50th reunion with fellow Class of 1960 alums.

Lander University has set a goal of raising $2 million for the Lander Loyalty Fund during the 2010-2011 academic year. Ralph Patterson, vice president for University Advancement and executive director of The Lander Foundation, said, "Our alumni and friends need to know that every dollar donated to the Loyalty Fund goes directly to students in the form of scholarships, academic programs, athletics and student services."